ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY AND PLANT EXPLOITAT ION AT THE ACERAMIC SITES OF RH5 AND RH6 NEAR THE MANGROVE SWAMP OF QURM (MUSCAT, OMAN)

Excavations of two main mid-Holocene shell middens near Muscat, Oman, have shown a careful choice of the sites, settled along the mouth of a wadi channel between the middle of the seventh and the first centurie s of the sixth millennium BP. The analysis on charred materials (from pits and hearths) gives informations about the essential aspects of th e territory exploited by the communities of fisher-gatherers. In parti cular, it is shown that a mangrove ecosystem was widely exploited both in terms of wood (Avicennia marina) and meat (Terebralia palustris). Other aspects of wood collection (Tamarix, Ziziphus, Acacia) show no d ifferencies with the present ecology. Carbonized fruits of Ziziphus an d Setaria are also present in the sites.